


Scarred

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Series: Obikin Week 2k18 [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Day 4, Ending Set Up For Offscreen Happiness, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Obikin Week 2018, Old Slavery-Related Scars, Possibly a Fixit AU, Slavery-Related Brand, Slavery-Related Tattoo, Vague Current Wound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 11:18:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15363453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Anakin has had ideas, mostly provided by Palpatine, that Obi-Wan can't possibly understand him, or what he's been through. Obi-Wan understands more than Anakin ever thought possible... and bears the proof of it on his body.





	Scarred

**Author's Note:**

> Obikin Week 2k18 Day 4: Scars & Different Path (Used both prompts)

 

Obi-Wan had always worn long-sleeved, tall-collared tunics in Anakin's presence.

Always.

Sparring, building a wall in the blazing sun, fording a river,  _ showering _ —

It didn't matter.

The shirt stayed on.

Anakin had long grown accustomed to it, long resigned himself to never finding out the reason for the bizarre custom. Obi-Wan had always looked slightly panicked when his padawan mentioned it or asked, and finally, from compassion alone, Anakin had desisted his prying.

He didn't like sensing such distress in his Obi-Wan.

It was Kix who peeled an unconscious Obi-Wan out of his undertunic. Anakin helped, of course, since Obi-Wan had a wound in his lower back that  _ required  _ help, or he might not  _ survive. _

With Obi-Wan face down on the cot, tunic gone, and the flickering light of a dying glowrod held up in a shiny's fist, Anakin caught his first glimpse of Obi-Wan Kenobi's back.

Anakin's knees locked, or he might have dropped to the floor. The world reeled around him, and he felt the blood drain from his face.

There was a number tattooed between Obi-Wan's shoulderblades. And at the base of his skull, just beneath the hair line, was branded a symbol known the galaxy over.

Thin scars laced his back, making his skin look like a stained glass window, with tiny patches of unmarred skin tucked between the vicious raised lines of crimson tissue.

Obi-Wan's wrists bore scars left by shackles, the sort that would have laid him open near to bone.

His neck bore traces as well, of a collar lined with spikes, the scarring shallow except for where one of the spines had dug in.

A surgical line by his spine showed where a restraining chip had been fished out.

Kix nearly had the new injury bandaged, but Anakin found ever more indications of a nightmare Obi-Wan clearly never wanted to remember.

Suddenly, all of Palpatine's reasonable arguments that Obi-Wan couldn't possibly understand Anakin melted into an unrecognizable mess at his feet.

Anakin's palm passed over the old scars, and his heart throbbed with pain.

_ Master. _

Anakin could understand a trauma that haunted a man so terribly that he didn't want to address it even with his closest friend. And while Anakin's heart had pattered much faster when Obi-Wan spoke these days, and he suspected Obi-Wan's did the same, Anakin didn't know for  _ sure  _ yet.

_ What was done to you has hounded you every step of your life. _

Just like Anakin's did the same.

Anakin knelt beside the cot, tears and awe warring for possession of his eyes.

While he hated that Obi-Wan had been forced to endure such horror, had been so terribly wounded, mind and body—

The red, lumpy scar flesh sang something else to Anakin as well.

_ Survivor.  _ His master had faced down hell and walked out.

_ And he is the kind of man I desperately hope to be like someday. _ A  _ good  _ man, a  _ kind  _ man. A man of compassion and dedication, and that gave Anakin hope.

_ If he could face something so desperately terrible and still be a decent human being... _

_Maybe I don't have to fear myself quite as much._

_ Maybe the Tuskens can be a single event, instead of something that will happen  _ again.

Palpatine had never, ever suggested that Anakin might choose his own destiny. He sympathized with Anakin that he was damaged, broken by what had been done to him and that it would express itself again. Violently.

But...

Maybe it was time he stopped listening to Palpatine, who didn't actually  _ know. _ He was sympathetic, yes, but Obi-Wan clearly  _ understood  _ in a way the Chancellor could never. So maybe the Chancellor's words were kindly meant but... rather unhelpful.

Small dark letters caught Anakin's attention, in middle of Obi-Wan's back, tucked under a stripe, near the spine.

_ Qui-Gon, Father. _

_Never Forgotten._

Anakin's throat constricted. The words were over the place Qui-Gon had been stabbed. And the word chosen?

Father?

_ He loved him that much? His... father? _

Brutally murdered... and Obi-Wan had known what it was to avenge. Anakin had seen the security footage.

Anakin swallowed, taking Obi-Wan's limp hand in his own and squeezing it tight.

When Obi-Wan awoke, Anakin would tell him everything.

_ I shouldn't be pulling away from this man. He's the one I should be leaning into. _

And when Obi-Wan Kenobi awoke, Anakin did.

Because of it, the trajectory of the past became irrelevant, as Anakin chose a new direction and set the future on an entirely different course.

 

 


End file.
